At this point, it’s probably conventional wisdom that Peter Milligan shouldn’t write corporate superhero comics. He just can’t write them with a straight face, without throwing in a bit of humour and cynicism, which most of the superhero fans hate. And when he tries to tone that down and write a “straight” superhero story, it tends to fall flat. Milligan’s a writer who needs creative freedom to do his thing.
So I was understandably skeptical of Infinite Inc., a resurrection of a 1980s superhero book about children of superheroes, featuring characters that spun out of DC’s weekly 52. The whole thing screams “Continuity!”, which is exactly the sort of thing Milligan should stay away from.
And yet… It’s pretty good. It’s far closer to being a Peter Milligan Book than a DC Superhero Book. In fact, it’s not terribly different in tone from the pre-Vertigo superhero revamps like Morrison’s Doom Patrol or Animal Man. The DC continuity is a starting point, but not particularly relevant to the story itself. All you really need to know about 52 and the history of Infinity Inc. is explained on the back cover: A bunch of people got superpowers, got to be superheroes, then had their powers taken away.
The concept is perfect for Milligan, as it fits nicely with one of his pet themes: Identity. What happens when you go from being a regular person to a superhero and back again? When you’re tempted with godhood and then thrown back to earth? In a Peter Milligan comic the answer is fairly obvious: You become psychologically dysfunctional and go into therapy, and then develop all new superpowers that are tied to your particular mental problems. (This is to be distinguished from the DCU answer, where you go on a quest to Earth-28 to find Barry Allens’ left sneaker.)
So the narcissist can make an exact duplicate of himself, the girl with abandonment issues disappears into a cloud of smoke, and the guy with some gender confusion can transform into a girl with superpowers. And there’s the emo-punk kid who feels empty and meaningless, and ends up being able to suck the lifeforce out of others, becoming the nominal villain of the story.
“Kid Empty”, as he’s called, is probably the least successful aspect of Infinity Inc. But that’s perhaps to be expected: Milligan stories aren’t really about the usual good-versus-evil, so the evildoer isn’t really the focus of the story. Ultimately, Kid Empty is just an extension of the central theme: In becoming superheroes again, the kids of Infinity Inc. become prime targets for the energy vampire; as any long-time superhero reader knows, vampires love people with superpowers. They’re so tasty.
(On the other hand, Kid Empty’s girlfriend is great: She lures Infinity Inc. into a trap with a trail of psychically-generated underwear.)
Also in the “uninteresting” category is Steel, the one-time Superman replacement and uncle of one of the main characters. His role seems to be twofold: First, to be the responsible adult; and second, to be the identifiable superhero of the story. He wanders around in his superhero armour for a little while for no particular reason, and talks to people who know about important DCU stuff.
Infinity Inc. isn’t quite a successful character piece – no one is really fleshed out in detail – but the character dynamics are interesting anyway, full of Milligan-esque quirks, like Gerome wanting Erik to turn into Erika so he can sleep with her? Or their default headquarters, Gerome’s apartment, being dubbed Infinity Crib? There’s a shapeshifter with identity issues, and a girl with self-mutilation tendencies who causes the walls around her to bleed.
It’s not a standard DCU sort of superhero book, which probably explains why it’s already been cancelled; this first trade doesn’t even have a “Volume 1” label, which leads me to suspect I’ll have to track down the individual issues if I want to read the rest of the series. (Though DC’s site says it’s Volume 1. So who knows?) It’s not surprising: It’s got nothing to do with the old Infinity Inc., not much to do with the DCU in general, has no costumes, and mostly has people talking to one another. Max Fiurama’s art isn’t an easy sell, either; the mood isn’t terribly consistent, but even when it gets the dark and expressive scenes right, it’s not the sort of thing you expect in a superhero comic.
I wonder if Milligan might have been better off taking the basic concepts, stripping the DCU references, and doing it as a Vertigo or Wildstorm book. Given the problems those imprints have had, along with Milligan’s general lack of commercial appeal, probably not. Still, Infinity Inc. is an interesting book off the beaten path of standard superheroics, the sort of thing DC doesn’t do very often. Obviously, that’s not a good place to be – the cover says “Superheroes!”, the content says “psychological drama and dark satire!”; the audience looking for the former hates it, and the audience looking for the latter doesn’t even bother looking at it. But if you’re not expecting anything in particular, it’s a fairly pleasant surprise.